Page:Republican Court by Rufus Griswold.djvu/146

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

118

THE REPUBLICAN COURT.

judgment; every custom has its cause: doubtless there is some reason why this kind of carriage is preferred to one hung with springs.' In fact, by the time we had run thirty miles, among the rocks, we were convinced that a carriage with springs would very soon have been overset and broken." In the same spirit he praises the inns; "you will not go into one," he says, "without meeting with neatness, decency, and dignity. The table is served by a maiden, well dressed, and pretty, by a pleasant mother whose age has not effaced the agreeableness of her features, and by men who have that air of respectability which is inspired by the idea of equality, and are not ignoble and base, like the greater part of our own tavern keepers." The Marquis de Chastellux, while travelling in the same region, was not so well satisfied; he contradicts indeed nothing which is advanced by M. de Warville, but avers that while the tables of the sitting-rooms were covered with the writings of Milton, Addison, and Richardson, the cellars contained "neither brandy, nor wine, nor even rum." The neophyte of democracy was every where attentive to the young women, and he finds the tediousness of the wagon beguiled by frequent sights, all through Massachusetts and Connecticut, of "fair girls, either driving a carriage, or alone on horseback, galloping boldly, with an elegant hat on the head, a white apron, and a calico gown: usages which prove at once the early cultivation of their reason, (since they are trusted so young to themselves,) the safety of the roads, and the general innocence of manners." Coming to New York by water^[1] he was de-

↑ "I ought to say one word of the packet boats of this part of America, and of the facilities which they offer. Though, in my opinion, it is more advantageous and often less expensive to go by land, yet I owe some praises to the cleanliness and good order observable in these boats. The one which I was in contained fourteen beds, ranged in two rows, one above the other, and every one had its little window. The chamber was well aired, so that one did not breathe that nauseous air which infects the packets of the English Channel. It was well varnished, and the provisions were good. There is not a little town on all this coast which is without this kind of vessels, going to New York. They have all the same neatness, the same embellishments, the

[p118-1] "I ought to say one word of the packet boats of this part of America, and of the facilities which they offer. Though, in my opinion, it is more advantageous and often less expensive to go by land, yet I owe some praises to the cleanliness and good order observable in these boats. The one which I was in contained fourteen beds, ranged in two rows, one above the other, and every one had its little window. The chamber was well aired, so that one did not breathe that nauseous air which infects the packets of the English Channel. It was well varnished, and the provisions were good. There is not a little town on all this coast which is without this kind of vessels, going to New York. They have all the same neatness, the same embellishments, the

[1]